Internet websites use resource links (e.g., URIs/URLs) to allow users to navigate to specific site resources. For example, a video-sharing website may use URLs of the form “https://www.videosharingwebsite.com/watch?v=<ID>” to navigate users to a specific video associated with the given ID. Users may be directed to such resource links using either direct referral (e.g., a link from another website, from an e-mail message, etc.) or search (e.g., a search of the video-sharing website, a general purpose search using a search engine, etc.).
Frequently, users desire to limit the availability of a particular resource to only select other users or groups of users. In other words, there is oftentimes a need to share some resources in a non-public way.